Today, Chinese satellite operator and data provider Beijing Space View Technology (Space View) announced that it has signed an agreement with Malaysian geospatial products company Digdat. This took place at Intergeo, a geospatial conference currently being held in Berlin.
Space View, a private company, operates the Superview-1 satellite constellation, launched in December 2016. Currently comprising two satellites, Superview-1 is China’s first commercial multi-sensor satellite constellation. Space View plans to launch an additional two satellites in late 2017.
Additionally, the company has been authorized by the Chinese government to distribute Earth Observation (EO) satellite data from four of China’s satellites, including Gaofeng-1 and Gaofeng-2.
Although details of the agreement have not been disclosed, Space View will probably distribute such images to Digdat, which currently sources images from India’s Cartosat series, Taiwan’s Formosat, South Korea’s Kompsat, and others. Digdat works closely with the Malaysian government, providing satellite data to the Malaysian Armed Forces and other government divisions.
Like many other space-related enterprises in China today, Space View is actively promoting its services internationally; today, it also announced that it is making its Superview-1 data of Mexico publicly available for use in relief efforts. This appears to be yet another step in the company’s efforts to establish a foothold in Latin America; it has already established partnerships in Brazil, Peru, and Chile.
